2017 Total Solar Eclipse
Eclipse 2017
What were you doing the day of the 2017 eclipse?
For me, August 21, 2017 was the last day of a several week long trip to Oregon and Washington. Most of my trip was spent visiting family, but the eclipse was the grand finale!
The morning of the 21st, my family and I got up at 3:30 am (yes, that’s AM!) and drove an hour south from Portland to McMinnille. Here’s the map so you can follow along:
Why did we get up at the butt-crack of dawn? Because in McMinnille we would get 100% totality for the eclipse. It makes a HUGE difference, although I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that my step-dad and my husband were insisting that we all leave the house at 4am. The kids and I begrudgingly complied. (I fully admitted my error in this later, and apologized for being so grouchy in the early hours of the day.)
We had pre-purchased tickets to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum where we found a place on their expansive lawn, set up chairs, and waited. And waited. And entertained kids… and waited some more.
Here are some of the pictures we took that morning:
In our custom eclipse shirts!
Alex being Alex
Bella checking out the sun (safely).
The action started at about 9:45am, when the moon barely began to cross in front of the sun. These are a few pictures Aaron took with his iphone, through our special glasses. As you can see, the camera wasn’t really able to focus on the sun for a good shot.
This is a picture I found online, but it gives you a clear idea of what we were seeing through the glasses:
A little after 10am, things started to get really interesting! The sky began to darken, as if it were dusk, to the point where there was a sunset 360-degrees surrounding us at the horizon. We didn’t need sunglasses anymore, but of course still used our eclipse glasses to watch the moon eclipse more and more of the sun.
Finally, at 10:17, the sun was completely covered. I didn’t realize until I removed my eclipse glasses that we could look directly at the totality without any eye covering!
This is the photo the Evergreen Museum posted on their site of the totality.
I must admit, I was more stunned and emotional than I ever thought I’d be. I’m not overstating it when I say that it was one of the most impactful natural events I’ve ever witnessed. It lasted only a single minute, but it will be forever ingrained into my mind. It was absolutely worth all of the travel, the early morning, the cranky kids, the heat, and two cans of sunblock, and braving the congested streets.
If you ever have the chance to see an eclipse, ESPECIALLY in its totality, absolutely do it! Don’t hesitate, because it’s a marvel to behold!
I’d love to see anyone else’s pictures from the day. Comment here with them, or message them to me via Facebook!
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